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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Bruce Charlton
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Once I had a bizarre dream in which I was vouchsafed a secret which would ensure my wealth and success. It was the title for a comic novel; one supposedly so funny that it would guarantee classic status for any book: Oh Colonel Flastratus! The distinctive feature about my dream was its quality of profound significance, which felt akin to the Eureka moment of a scientific discovery. This led me to question whether the 'peak experience' (PE) of scientific discovery might be as delusional as my dream. On the one hand, euphoric elation attached to a discovery does not guarantee that insights objective truth - implications must be spelled-out and checked. The easy induction of pseudo-profound insights by intoxicants serves as a warning of the potential pitfalls. An arbitrary object becomes labeled with an obscure sense of delight and personal relevance in a process that could be termed the Colonel Flastratus! phenomenon. But neither are peak experiences irrelevant. A scientific PE is some kind of personal guarantee of the subjective truth of an insight - a signal that states: 'This is high quality stuff, by your standards. Do not ignore it, do not forget it, try to understand it'. Peak experiences in science could therefore be considered the result of a 'significance alarm' going off in the brain and their objective value depends on the specialized cognitive quality of that specific brain. So scientists may be correct to take peak experiences seriously. Perhaps the best approach is to regard the scientific PE as a signal from the self to the self, a subjectively evaluated and auto-administered emotional reward for good thinking. © 2007.
Author(s): Charlton BG
Publication type: Editorial
Publication status: Published
Journal: Medical Hypotheses
Year: 2007
Volume: 69
Issue: 3
Pages: 475-477
Print publication date: 01/01/2007
ISSN (print): 0306-9877
ISSN (electronic): 1532-2777
Publisher: Churchill Livingstone
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2007.05.001
DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2007.05.001
